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In the NBA if you insult a player, you get a technical and you might even be ejected. This should be a soccer rule. Should that rule be in effect and the referee heard it, and Materazi ejected, the whole situation would have been seen differently.

In bastketball , players get in fist fights (Shaq a great basketball playerand charles Barkley a great basketball playerfor example) and more recent ones NY and Denver but nobody makes a big deal about it anymore. Even the great basketball player Kobe Bryant's rape accusations do not tarnish his image anymore.

Why is Zidane a target? Had it been Ronaldinhio or Beckham, it would not have been mediatized like this. But it is a question to dwell about in all self honesty.

And why do you think Materazi admitted what he did and never retaliated or sued? He is a very well known dirty player. Go to Italy and ask.

If someone kept after you and continously insulted your mom or sister, would you be apathetic and be stepped on without a grain of dignity? May be you have not experienced that to understand.

In the NBA if you insult a player, you get a technical and you might even be ejected. This should be a soccer rule. Should that rule be in effect and the referee heard it, and Materazi ejected, the whole situation would have been seen differently.

^.....i fully agree with you here.....something like this is what should have been done....in fact, if i'm not mistaken,FIFA has a similar rule of ejection if a player makes a racist remark toward another player.......so why not not include non-racial verbal assaults as well!-----------------

In bastketball , players get in fist fights (Shaq a great basketball playerand charles Barkley a great basketball playerfor example) and more recent ones NY and Denver but nobody makes a big deal about it anymore. Even the great basketball player Kobe Bryant's rape accusations do not tarnish his image anymore.

^............in each of these instances, these actions have not determined the outcome of a championship game or season for the respective teams these players are on.----------------------

Why is Zidane a target? Had it been Ronaldinhio or Beckham, it would not have been mediatized like this.

^.....if it was ronaldino, i doubt he would have been able to return to Brazil and not fear for his life!......................Beckham did something similarly stupid in a past WC against argentina i believe..............and nobody in England ever let him forget it!!!.....zidane has it the best of everybody, he is viewed as a hero in France....so why is he a target?------------------

If someone kept after you and continously insulted your mom or sister, would you be apathetic and be stepped on without a grain of dignity? May be you have not experienced that to understand.

^......it depends what is at stake, on a soccer field in the WC final do you really think i give a dam about what an opponent is saying about my relatives?????.......let me say this, if i was playing an important game and my opponents knew that i could not be distracted or angered by verbal insults (no matter how hard) do you really think that they would be waisting their efforts insulting me or my family?????...of course not!......but since zidane's weakness was well known to the italians, it is obvious that they exploited it the way they did!!....you can call materazi a dirty player or whatever you want, but he did not operate outside of FIFA confines......if there is no penalty for insulting an opponent then what would prevent him from doing so if there was a chance it could help his team win......this might not be good sportsmanship but the name of the game is to win!...but the point is that zidane should have been smart enough to realize this but he was not!

sum1reel... It's a bit different because Hockey is a full contact sport. It's also the only contact sport where you carry a lethal weapon(Exception being Lacrosse) so people who agitate are putting their health on the line.

Maybe it's because I played hockey and watch it that I excuse Zizou's actions. I never really thought of it that way but I don't really fault him and if anything it raised my view of him.

I've downloaded some Puskas footage... That team was dynamite and he did some really great things but I still hold that todays Footballers are the most fit and well trained in history. All of them have great natural talent as well... So someone who excells now is MUCH better than someone who excelled then.

........are you joking?.........he may be good but certainly not a soccer 'great'......c.ron is the typical over-hyped star in the EPL......he does well there because there plenty of defensively weak teams!

did you see him play against Inter-milan in 5/07 at the san-siro?...........Gattuso stripped him of the ball almost everytime he came into the attacking zone.

Well, I strongly believe there is no contest regardless of the years seperating them. Maradona was suppose to shine as a youngster for the '78 team, but wasnt good enough because of a tremdous Argentine roster and a lousy coach that wouldnt give a gifted youngster a shot. Pele on the other hand at around the same age in '58 was, hands down given the opportunity to play with an incredible roster of adult brazilian super stars.

Pele has 3 world cup championships out of four. Maradona has 1 out of 2. Pele has more scoring titles in not only his country but the south american continent. Maradona never had a scoring title. Hence forth Pele scored more goals.

Pele was more athletic than Maradona ever could be. Lots of tapes of these two have been recorded on the football field and there is no dispute when you compare footage of these two.

Pele never needed steroids to accomplish the feats that he displayed. Maradona,,, an ex-overweight drug addict who was caught many times taking drugs. He was kicked out of the World Cup in the U.S of A a long time ago. And he deserved it!

It was a joke to consider Maradona anywhere close to being as good as the great Pele.

It is still joke today. The Argentine Press is way to bias with their Maradona. Pele to this day is still invited to all types of FIFA ceremonies all over the world. Maradona was invited to only one.

You know. I must apologize to every football fan. I was attentive to the thread because it was cut off. Heh, heh, heh, 1/3rd of the title thread was blocked from my reading! LOL. But it I've said my peace about these two. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Pele is the soul and the legend of football (soccer). It is unfair to compare anyone to him.

i so agree Mrdecember...Pele is a class unto himself and i don't think in today's sports world we will see another player like him....it isn't just his skills, it was an attitude and spirit and absolute passion that i is unrivaled by today's players.

However, more currently, I am a fan of Zidane. And I grew up with my Father talking about Bobby Moore and the 1966 England World Cup win so I better mention him too LOL

This is SOOO hard because each "great one" brings something new or at a totally new level than the others. Cruiff was awesome, Pele was so far ahead of his time, Maradona was just at that super-high level where he could do no wrong (even with his hands).

Zidane, for more recent players, was really good. But so is Ronaldo, but so is Ronaldinho. So is Kaka, my favorite current player. But are they CHANGING soccer? Not as much as those REALLY great players.

Great point Frank! South of the American border(Mexico, South America & Central America) defenders are much smaller & don't tackle near as effectively or with the Power of their European counterparts.My vote would go to Zidane..